Thursday, August 11, 2011

LONDON (AP) -- Facial recognition technology being considered for London's 2012 Games is getting a workout in the wake of Britain's riots, a senior police chief told The Associated Press on Thursday, with officers feeding photographs of suspects through Scotland Yard's newly updated face-matching program.

Chief Constable Andy Trotter of the British Transport Police said the sophisticated software was being used to help find those suspected of being involved in the worst unrest London has seen in a generation.

But he cautioned that facial recognition makes up only a fraction of the police force's efforts, saying tips have mostly come from traditional sources, such as still images captured from closed circuit cameras, pictures gathered by officers, footage shot by police helicopters or images snapped by members of the public. One department was driving around a large video screen displaying images of suspects.

2 comments:

Chris
said...

They did this in Vancouver as well after the Stanley Cup Finals Riot. Facebook groups were formed and photos were run in local papers to identify the looters. It worked extremely well and lots of people were turned in after their facebook profiles were overrun with horrible comments. It eventually turned nasty when these peoples lives were turned upside down with death threats, constant calls on cell phones and being fired from their jobs. Even the local BC insurance company, ICBC, ran biometrics against drivers license photos to identify looters...

Just a small point - there were no 'British Riots', the unrest occurred only in ENGLAND - NOT in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall or the smaller isles. Kelts were chillin' while Anglo-Saxons went on rampage.... (check out August issue of 'The Limpet' at Save The Holy Headland Blog for story of what caused the riots)

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